My friend Regan Farquhar aka "Busdriver" wrote on his interpretation of a few of my series (see below). I find it very interesting and rather relieving to see it through another's point of view. It's very difficult at the moment to articulate where I'm coming from and what I'm saying with my work. Don't mistake this struggle as a weakness or a body of work without a conceptual foundation but rather frame it in the unknown of the intuitive state. I know my language of lines, b/w depth & negative/ positive space but these works pull from an unknown that turns me inside out. Right now, I'm in my most vulnerable state & I thank you for your patience.

Dialogue of Dualities 2Every day we absorb mountains of emotional interconnections that we are compelled to share. Still when we re-create our experience for others, much is edited, much is omitted and the experience that unfurls in our mind is not really made available. Our cultural imperative saves us from the depth of each other's toil. Its always obvious that there is always so much at play, but what can you incorporate in the banality of everyday talk? This piece feels like an unfiltered read of reality's mania. The dance of characters here do something unique in that they melt the boundaries between our perception of pain, bliss, playfulness, then spoons them to the on-looker via a vivid tapestry of inner-happenings. Each a frozen status of the human social experiment. All heightened by the familiar, yet alien nature of it all. Its actual beauty meant to remind your awareness to be daring again. Be alive again or for once.

ThuggiesConsciousness is like a hand of dissimilar fingers, feeling its way through a gust heavy with memory. Heavy with a forbidden longings, soaked with secret information on how our forms fit with one another. Yet our culture gives us art to pacify any animality, dividing us from our truer selves. Choosing not to engage the mind and body in any thinking that could foster a complete reimagining of our world. These are specify instructions, casting the frenzy of human instincts as taboo putting us at odds with our actual being. describing it feels extreme but it is the default condition for most. Happiness is not so much a goal but something that yr world demands of you.

For me, Thuggies penetrate that perpetual happiness mandate of everyday life with knowledge of that frenzy. Expressing a dangerous and clumsy freedom. Overlapping expressions and sex organs, putting the interactions in a Dadaist consideration, turning the scene into a psychedelic deconstruction of our commercialized notion of innocence. This speaks to their cartoon character kinship that highlights the corrupting nature of the passive arts that clutter our consumer grinds. Morphing expressive figures used not to insist on happiness but as a gallery of emotive states.

The scene could be an almost humorous reveal of hidden volatility in being invited behind the cute animated character facade into a bevy of unsavory feelings just underneath what we've passively consider suitable for children. The artist's, Monica's, embrace of nudity and decorated bodies give Thuggies a folk kinship that for me, frame their supernatural orgy as a moral tale of sorts. A seductive unifying theme in the piece. Making it transcendent. A coming of age story , ageless and open-ended.

Oracle of 3The tumbling bodies playfully poking holes in each other... Monica is always melting the borders between trauma, sexual surprise and friendly playfulness. it's powerful in how it forces the observer to surrender fundamental social dynamics in favor of somethings more fluid and expressive, when considering the scene. Monica's aesthetic for Oracle of 3 cards, suggests a supernatural quality not only in the work itself but the actual format. They come across as unconventional tarot cards, from a world rooted in magic. That folk spiritual utility is always present in her work. Perhaps they can be used in readings or in communicating with likeminded mystics or the dead. It's really up to you.